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A great place to stay for a weekend away

It seems only fitting that writing my review of Premier Travel Inn be my 100th, as my visit back in August of 2008 was the end of the old life and beginning of the new!

I had organised to drive up to Coventry and bring my partner (Sue) and her daughter down to Plymouth to start our new life together, and had entered into a private tenancy agreement to start the following day (if the landlord got back from his holiday)!

I'd been living for about 2 weeks with my son in his council owned flat and planned to pick Sue up so that we could move straight in, but like everything else things didn't go to plan.

Luckily, I only needed to sort 1 night out although at the time that was not definite. It was the morning of the day I planned to pick her up and I was stuffed so I looked around for a while and then about 9am I saw the Premier Inn near to the Barbican in Plymouth - Lockyers Quay.

I have to admit it came as a shock when I found the price was £70 per night, but still I was getting desperate and needed something.

It is very well situated, close to the city centre, the historic barbican, the sea front and to night clubs, a vue cinema and plenty of eating areas.

I have been to Hilton Hotels a few times and spent 7 weeks many years ago at a 3* hotel in Bristol with a previous employer, but I was shocked at the condition of the room - it was excellent. It was a family room with double bed and pull out single - which was extremely comfortable. It had all the imenities including a very well decorated shower room and everything you'd expect of a top hotel chain.

This particular hotel is situated next to the sea - and is within easy walking distance of the National Marine Aquarium. Despite the receptionist suggesting it was a noisy area we definitely couldn't agree (or perhaps we were just drained from all the travel and other worries). My only concern was would we endure any fishy smells - it was next to the area where all the fishing trawlers bring in their catch. Yet again, this proved to be unfounded. Our only problem, which happens at any hotel is the constant banging and walking around by other guests during the middle of the night.

It does have parking directly next to the hotel which is security monitored, but being a pay in display car park it was difficult getting a space - even at 9pm when we arrived. They do also have a second much larger car park which again is security monitored but for those that worry about their cars is a little out of the way and more open. For those staying parking is free and a permit in the form of a piece of paper is issued by the reception staff.

There is a Table Table restaurant next door which the Premier Inn utilises and despite being £7.50 per adult (children free) it is actually very good value, as not only do you have a cooked breakfast but you can also eat as much as you like from it's other breakfast selection including fruit, cereal, pastries and juices.

I have no doubt, that if I could afford to do it again that I would have no hesitation in using this particular location. Yes, it was expensive (or appeared to be) but you certainly pay for quality and it was to me well worth it.

Like all chains, you do get differences between locations but I have no reservations in giving this location a 5* rating.

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Good choice for customers in tranist

As all our relatives live at one of the country, and we live at the other, we've spent a bit of time over the years driving the length of Britain north to south and back again, and since the arrival of our sprog, it's been necessary to break up the stay by spending the night in a motel - having tried going 'off-road' to various good and worse, not-so-good B&Bs mid-way in the Lake District, we now always choose to stay in a Travel Inn.

The great advantage of Travel Inns is of course that they're geared up for passing traffic - most are on or very near motorways or A-roads; some in or near city centres. Their website is easy to use - with a clickable map showing Travel Inns up and down the country, and if by chance the hotel of your choice isn't aviailable the night you want to stay, they'll offer a selection nearby. By registering with the website you're emailed promotional offers for advance booking of rooms - often they offer £19 a night 'specials' if booked in advance, or sometimes two nights for the price of on. A double / family room usually contains a double bed and also a bed settee, with en suite bathroom. This'll usually cost approx £50 - £60 night.

Travel Inns are usually (though not always) sited beside a 'Beefeater' type chain-pub restaurant and often they offer breakfast meal-deals where you get a discount if you want to buy a breakfast there in the morning. Others I've stayed at sometimes offer you a 'continental' brekky that you can buy from the hotel; a hot drink or juice and a plastic-wrapped croissant; not worth bothering with unless you're desperate in my experience. There is ususally coffee / tea and kettle available in the room.

A very slight drawback - but not really a complaint - with Travel Inns is that few if any of them are located close to any scenic or intersting places where you might wish to take a weekend break - we've considered staying in an Inn as budget accommodation but as they're geared up for travellers in transit, we haven't found this a great option.

Until last summer, when we stayed at the Travel Inn on the M11 near Standstead airport the night before our early holiday flight, I'd have said these motels were all pretty much exactly the same inside. Happily, the rooms almost are all usually well-maintained to a good, clean standard. (Admittedly sometimes the bathrooms smell a bit stale, but the design of the rooms is such that the bathrooms never have windows, so this no surprise really.) The M11 place however we found quite dirty and in need of a refurb - but this was an exception to the general rule. The Travel Inn in Carlisle we stayed at most recently was in contrast brand spanking new and an unusually nice one - so there is a bit of variation across the chain.

The main drawback we've found with Travel Inns in general - and again, it's a minor, if irritating one - is that the website instructions on how to find them often aren't detailed / comprehensive enough. A lot of Travel Inns are situated in motorway service areas - it's difficult enough to navigate these types of places generally, but we've found that within the services, Travel Inns are quite poorly signposted as rule.

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Does exactly what it needs!

This is a review of the Premier Travel Inn chain in general, not of any specific branch. The reason for this is that we have stayed at a number of Travel Inns across the country over the years. The chain is also known as Travel Inn and Premier Inn.....but they are one and the same. They are part of Whitbread.

Travel Inns are one of a number of similar chains offering basic but comfortable accommodation across the UK designed for one or two night stays to break up your journey when you are travelling - the modern "Motel".

Branches are found throughout the UK and Ireland, as well as in India and Dubai (if you are travelling a little further!).

My children do a lot of ski racing, and so we spend a lot of time at the weekends taking them to dry ski slopes across the uk, and during the winter getting them to Europe. We need to do all of this on a budget, so Travel Inns are just the job for us.

There is a range of rooms available, some which are suitable for disabled guests, and some that are suitable for families (at no extra cost). We opt for the family room - there are four of us, two adults and two teenagers, and this does us nicely. Twin rooms are available, but these could contain a double bed - so if you are travelling with a "friend" or your mother, you may wish to check when booking that you have twin beds rather than a double! All rooms are, of course, now non-smoking.

**booking**

You can search for availability online at www.premierinn.com and can complete your booking online. This is quick and simple and the option we normally opt for.

You can ring an automated booking line - I have never tried this, for fear I will end up booking something I cannot get out of because I am speaking to a machine!

You can book directly with the hotel that you wish to stay in. This is great if you have stayed there before and have particular requirements about the location of your room.

Or you can book with their customer services people on the telephone - they are open between 8am and 8pm (from 9am on Sundays) so this is not as convenient as booking online, but we have used this service in the past and not had any problems.

**The rooms**

These are basic, but comfortable. A family room contains a good sized double bed with bedside cabinets, and a sofa that has a pull out bed underneath, so can sleep 4 "cosily". There is a TV, tea/coffee making facilities and usually internet access (although you have to pay for this as an extra). There is plenty of space for hanging coats and clothes and for storing bags. The bathroom is generally quite spacious with a shower over the bath - towels are provided, as is shower gel. If there is not a hairdryer in your room, simply ask for one at reception. Cots are also available on request.

**The price**

Prices vary - you can get a family foom for under £50 at times, but you generally pay between £50 and £75 for a room per night - not cheap cheap, but if you are fitting four people in, it works out pretty well!

**Food**

All Travel Inns will either have their own restaurant attached, or will be on the same site as an eating facility such as Beefeater or Brewers Fayre.

If there is a restaurant attached to your Travel Inn, they usually offer "kids eat free" at breakfast, which also helps the budget go a little further. Breakfast is NOT included in the price of the room. There are a range of breakfasts available from a "grab and go" breakfast for a couple of pounds, to an "all you can eat" hot breakfast for about £7.

**Good Night's Sleep**

Travel Inn have been offering a guarantee of a good night's sleep for several years, although I cannot see mention of it on their website, so this might have been axed. Basically, if you do not get a good night's sleep while staying with them, they will refund your room fee. Now, obviously this is not applicable if it is your baby that is keeping you awake, or your partner is snoring.....but if you are kept awake by something that is outside your control, such as the heating controls not turning off so the room was like a sauna, or something then you would qualify.

I have claimed twice - once when a wedding reception on the same site was playing Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" until gone midnight, and as we needed to be up for 6am, this was not aiding our sleep, and once when we shared the Travel Inn with a group of Irish Dancers who were competing nearby, and who were using the corridors to practice in, again until very very late, and so we could not sleep. On both occasions, we were refunded, in cash, immediately on completion of a form. No quibble. I would certainly not try and claim if it was not genuine, but if you have a good reason why you could not sleep, then I have found them to be very good at that refund.

**Customer Service**

We have always found their customer service, both on the phone, and at reception, to be very helpful. If you want extra towels, bedding, shower gel, etc or if you want to arrange a room on a lower floor, or away from the car park etc, they are very helpful in our experience.

So, to sum up - if you want basic, clean, comfortable, good quality accomodation if you are travelling on business or on your way to an airport, or somewhere, then give Premier Inn/Travel Inn a go. It is not 5* luxury, but it is good value for money and does what it needs to do.

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More than you pay for !

I have recently begun to travel alone, on business. I have chosen to use the Premier group of hotels for a number of reasons: the familiarity of the room layout and consistent high standard of cleanliness makes it easier to settle in quickly; the absence of Sky/satellite TV - which initially was a disappointment -is actually a bonus as I dont stay up all night watching junk instead of sleeping; the separate breakfast charge means I dont pay for a breakfast I rarely have and finally as a woman travelling alone I notice that they do seem to take personal safety quite seriously eg not putting single women travellers on ground floor if possible and deadlocks on doors. And of course it is very good value for money, even at the London County Hall which costs more than the others, but is worth it for the high ceilings and if you are lucky a view of the London Eye.Downs ? Just one  the bath towels are way too small ! Idea  what about a few executive rooms with bigger bath towels, and toiletries included, maybe even mini-apartment style with a kitchen area, for longer stays ?

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stay off!

My letter to Hotelconnect:

My live-in and I spent the weekend in Amsterdam 19-22 October, 2006. We followed a link to Hotelconnect.co.uk from Sterling.no where we bought our plane tickets.

As Sterling is a low-price airline and your company advertised with lowest possible prices we made a quick booking after looking at the web pictures of the Hotel. Upon arrival at the hotel we find ourselves having paid aprox. 125 Euros per night through your company, for a product the hotel itself advertised at 85 Euros per night. We were then given an incredible small AND intensely smoke-smelling room worth of 85 Euros. The young clerk apologized for this, but explained that they had only received aprox. 85 Euros from Hotelconnect - and hinted at us being stupid for not booking directly with them.

After undesirable discussion and quarrel we were able to get a reasonable room similar to the one presented to us at the web upon booking. With the explicit risk of having to pay an extra fee when meeting the manager morning after. After another not-what-you-want-on-a-holiday-discussion this was just nearly avoided. The phone numbers to Hotelconnect on our voucher was impossible to reach for our clerk who made numerous attempts to call (this was 20-21 in the evening). No answering machine stating an extra number outside normal hours.

Needless to say we found this not all satisfactory. It's even tempting to call this a straight forward fraud if the figures and margins above is what your company normally operates with. Hopefully this is an excerption and some sort of miscommunication at a hotel not used to receive guests through other channels than direct booking. No matter what we'd like your opinion on the matter before we share our experience with friends and colleagues.----

I sent this mail to Hotelconnect the 2nd of November - still no real response. "Just we will look in to it". That much for their price guarantee.

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Not a bad place to stay but a little more care should be taken with loud people wakeing otheres up

Premier Travel Inn is the UK's biggest hotel chain with over 470 great locations across the country,rooms start from just £47 pounds thats pernight and not per person , I stayed in the christchurch Premier travel inn which was only a 5 minute walk away from the christ church train station and a 5 minute ride on the train from bournemouth train station.

On arrival at the hotel just after 7 oclock I was greeted with a warm smile and a welcome which was greatly received and made me feel right at home straight away,check in only took five minutes in which breakfast was available as well as a newspaper ,as I stayed for two days breakfast and a neswpaper were ordered.

When I arrived at my room which was on the 3rd floor the first thing I did was plonk my suitcase down and visit the toilet,,after finding the lightswitch which was situated on the inside of the bathroom room on a string cord I had a wash then proceded to run myself a much needed bath,on looking around in my room I found I had an internet access point a tv-video combi ,kettle,tea,coffee and suger sachets a brown biscuit as well as shampoo and conditioner sachets and body wash dispenser..yippee...

Over all I had a good stay at the hotel but found that a lots of stag weekends use the hotel as I was awoke by drunk people passing my door both nights so if your looking for a romantic weekend with your ladyfriend this is not the hotel to choose.For the two nights stay I was charged £100 with the extras of two breakfast and one newspaper of £15.50 giveing me a total bill of £115.50 .

To be truthfull there are cheaper places around which include breakfast for free but over all Premier travel lodge is a good choice if you dont want to look around.

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This is the best value for money if you wish to visit London but not spend too much.

Premier Travel Inn Thurrock - West, West Thurrock

This is the best value for money if you wish to visit London but not spend too much.

We have stayed at the hotel 8 times and we have booked to stay at the end of August for the bank holiday weekend 2 nights for a family of 4 is costing us £108. This is room only but worth the money for the comfort and location of this hotel.

Hotel: The hotel is situated next to the M25 not far from the dartford bridge etc. The road is very nosey but the hotel has double glazing windows which block out the noise. The Premier Travel Inn has an integral pub restaurant which provides a selection of evening meals, we had a lovely steak meal here and the food was excellent and the staff friendly. Breakfasts are available at £7.50 for a buffet type meal. Parking for the hotel is FREE.

Rooms: This is one of the cleanest travel inns i have stayed at in the uk. The room we stayed in had a double bed and sofa bed which pulls out for the 4th child. The room has a spacious bathroom, Sat Tv, Hair dryer, telephone, coffee and tea making items/kettle. Plenty of extra pillows which i need.

Price: Monday - ThursdayFrom £60 per room per night

Friday - SundayFrom £54 per room per night

Location:Thurrock WestStonehouse Lane West Thurrock EssexRM19 1NS

DirectionsFrom the north, exit the M25 at junction 31 and follow the signs for the A1090 to Purfleet. Do NOT cross the Dartford Bridge and do NOT follow the signs for Lakeside.

From the south, exit the M25 at junction31. As you approach the Dartford Tunnel, bear left signposted to Dagenham. As you come out of the tunnel the hotel is at the top of the slip road.

From the A13, follow the signs for the A1360 to Rainham and Purfleet and then the A1090 to Purfleet.

The first time we stayed at the hotel we had no difficulties finding the hotel.

Extra Helpful information:The travel in is 2 miles from Lakeside shopping complex and 3 miles from bluewater, so this is excellent location for you shoppers out there.

Getting to London is easy, Purfleet train station is only 2 miles away and is very easy to find, directions from the hotel. The train station is very small, has free parking and very helpful staff. You are then 20 min train drive to main London. A travel card cost us on our last visit £8 adult and £2 for a child, this can be used to travel all day on the underground.

Like to visit the Cinema, bowling, have a meal at TGIF? Then pop over to the lakeside complex and you will find plenty to do in the surrounding area. We love TGIF even though its quit expensive, easier to get in than the one in the centre of London.

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I stayed at the Premier Travel Inn on Bath Road by Heathrow Airport on Thursday 3rd August 2006. I spent one night here and booked the accomodation through www.hotelconnect.co.uk!

I checked in around 5pm, It was easy to find, straight down bath road towards the airport with a big Premier Travel Inn Sign- hard to miss! You go through a barrier and take a ticket and it lets you and your vehicle into the car park which has security. The carpark is crazy, its so close to the British Airways cargo depo that my car was literally parked next to a Boeing 747 Jumbo jet!!!

Inside the hotel the reception was in a large open space with restuaurants, a bar, costa coffee bar, lounge seating area. There were lots of staff working on reception and I was served imediately by a receptionist. I was also impressed to see they had a seperate desk for Airline Staff so they can fast track the queue!

I had to give the receptionist my parking ticket and pay a small 24 hour parking rate then she said when i leave the carpark i swipe out and swipe in using my room key card. very handy and easy!

I paid £58 for a single room (igot given a large room with a double bed, sofa bed and a bed on the floor! room for four people! There was an air conditioning unit in the room that was quiet and very useful with the warm weather at the time. The Room was clean and simple, but modern and welcoming. The beds were very comfortable and I had a really good nights sleep in my bed!I was concerned about the noise from aircrafts taking off and landing and the traffic! Its such a busy place heathrow, its crazy! But inside the hotel it was really quiet!

The Ensuite was very clean, nice white towels, long bath and hot water at peak times... i.e. 8am in the morning, 6-10pm on an evening! Its nice to be in a hotel that has enough hot water for everyone!

I ate in the hotels bar on the evening. there was a more formal restaurant where you can book tables and have table service etc, and also a bar that does bar meals such as pie and chips, sausage and mash, jacket potatoes etc- I ate there. It was about £8 for a main course. Not too bad. and the food was very nice!

My booking included breakfast in the price so I ate from the buffet breakfast next morning. Even if you have to pay the £6.99 for the breakfast it is worth it! There was a selection of cereals, cold and hot drinks, lots of choice on the hot english breakfast buffet, fresh fruit, yoghurts etc!

Over all, Enjoyed my overnight stay in the Premier Travel Inn and would stay there again! Ive had good stop overs in other premier travel inns too and see them as a brand I can rely on for a clean comfortable room that guarantees a good nights sleep!I've stayed at the Liverpool docksides by the beatles museum- the premier travel inn there is excellent! very funky inside with lots of brick features and arched ceilings in the bedrooms- its like a big old converted factory!

Going back to the Heathrow Premier Travel inn- there is a bus service that runs between hotels and also to the airport. If you know people in other hotels, dont drive there, take the bus enjoy a drink with your friends and get the bus back. there are also busses to the airport terminals from the hotel- so its a useful place to stay if you have a flight to catch or your longhaul cabincrew needing a room for the night if you commute from the north! As the hotel has a dedicated airline staff check in desk at the hotel reception, they will probably have a discounted rate for airline staff who show their airline ID- I know The Ibis does this and rooms are as little as £30 a night when an ID is produced!

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A very pleasant one or two days stay in a very cosy room.

We have just come back from a visit to our family up north in County Durham and we stayed there for two nights in a Premier Travel Inn. This was situated at Newton Aycliffe, which is listed under Durham on the Premier Travel Inn website, and is about 12 miles south of Durham, 20 minutes approximately. It is less than a 2 miles from the A1(M), seven miles north of Darlington on the A167, I have put the full address and telephone number at the end of this review. In the surrounding area, and all within 25 miles of Newton Aycliffe, there are plenty of places of interest to visit such as Beamish Museum at Stanley and Croft Motor Circuit just south of Darlington, Barnard Castle and Raby Castle are close by, and of course there are several places to visit at Durham. The Metro-Centre is about 31 miles north and is our favourite shopping centre anywhere.

It had taken us six and a half hours to drive up to Newton Aycliffe and it was dark when we arrived but we had no problems finding the hotel as it was well lit. The car park was nearly empty and had several parking bays painted for the disabled which were the closest to the main entrance. Although the hotel states that it does not have any rooms adapted for the disabled you can always request a room on the bottom floor which is what we did. The reception was very small but the welcome was polite, warm and sincere from the check in lady who was very bright and bubbly. We had already booked our stay, for my wife daughter and myself, a week before on the internet at premiertravelinn.com this only took about two minutes to finalise and made it easier for the lady to get our details up on the computer screen. There was plenty of leaflets and brochures on view of all the local places of interest, attractions and historical buildings.

You could get chilled soft drinks from the machine in reception as well as sweets, crisps and chocolate. We were asked if we would like to order breakfast but could not decide at that time and were told not to worry as we could just turn up in the restaurant the next morning anyway. Breakfast is at 7:00 till 9:00 Mon to Fri and 8:00 till 10:00 Sat, Sun and Bank holidays. For £6.95 you get full breakfast and you can choose from Cumberland sausage, back bacon, egg, mushrooms, tomato, beans, bloomer bread toast, croissant, muffins, preserve, Marmite, yoghurt, fruit salad and a variety of Kellogg's cereals. Or you could choose from the Continental buffet at £5.25 that is the same as the full breakfast but without the fry up, there is plenty of fruit juice, tea and coffee all freshly made. One important point to note is that if you have children under ten then they eat free, and they can choose anything from the full breakfast range and up to four children can eat for free when one adult purchases a full breakfast.

The Inn has 45 rooms on two floors and we were given our key to room six on the bottom floor and cost £46.95 for the three of us per night, it would have been the same price if we had two children, (aged 15 and under), because all family rooms have a fold down sofa bed big enough for two. The room was medium sized, bright, clean and well decorated and had a king sized bed that was very soft springy and fairly high against one wall with a wall light fitted to each side. A fairly new looking Gideons holy bible was on the bedside cabinet on oneside of the bed. All rooms in the 460 Premier Travel Inns nationwide have En suite bathroom with bath and shower, colour remote controlled TV's, tea and coffee making facilities, heater controls and a long desk and table. There were two mirrors in the room with another two wall lights on either side of them, the thermostat could be set to a maximum of 23 degrees which was very pleasant for us up north from the south.

The window, which only opened to about six inches with it being on the ground floor and a security risk, overlooked fields so there were no sounds to be heard at all. The room was a no smoking room and had the smoke alarm fitted just outside the bathroom door which was a silly place to fit it because if you had just had a shower and left the door open then the steam would let of the alarm, well that's what we were told by the lady at reception. There was plenty of space to hang your clothes and ample shelf space, no trouser press, iron or hair dryer in the rooms. The small kettle three mugs and plenty of tea, coffee and milk was a very welcome sight after our very long weary drive. Three bath and three hand towels were neatly folded on shelves in the very clean and bright bathroom, that looked very shiny and new. A shower gel dispenser was fixed to the wall above the bath and a foaming soap dispenser was above the wash basin.

A shaver point with 115v/230v is available next to the strip light above the very large well lit mirror. One minor point was that when running a bath it seemed to take forever, and don't forget to keep the bathroom door closed because of the smoke alarm. The colour television only had the five basic channels but did have a very bright LED clock at the bottom which was handy. The lights in the room when they were all lit did not brighten the room that much because these establishments always fit the bulbs with the least amount of wattage as possible. We did notice that the room door was wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through, no pets are allowed except for assistance dogs. Rooms are available from 2:00pm daily but let the hotel know if you will arrive after 11:00pm, you vacate rooms by 12:00 noon on your day of departure.

Next to The Premier Travel Inn, and sharing the same car park, was the Two for One restaurant which could hold up to about eighty guests and was a very welcome sight as we were dropping off and could of eaten a horse. Most Travel Inns have restaurants and include Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Millers Pub and Restaurant, Chef & Brewer, Bar Est and many more but not all are licensed. Two for One bars and restaurants are part of Spirit Group Ltd who have 1,820 pubs, bars and restaurants nationwide. They are the managed division of Punch Taverns, the UK's leading pub company with over 9,500 pubs altogether. Unlike other Two for One restaurants that we had been to in this one you could sit at a table as soon as it became available which meant that, even though the place was near enough full, we got seated straight away. There was an area at one end of the bar where you could just sit and drink, there were three tables, a pool table but with a very smokey atmosphere.

Starters ranged from Soup of the Day, Prawn Cocktail, Cajun Chicken Salad, Beef Chilli Nachos to Tuna melt Bruschetta or Mushroom melt Bruschetta, (Vegetarian) prices from £2.05 to £3.45. You could have 'Sharers', as the name implies you share with a friend or family depending on which one you choose, you could have Combo for two at £6.45 this includes strips of chicken served with salad, onion rings, breaded mushrooms, potato wedges, barbecue chicken wings and garlic bread with barbecue dips. Two other 'Sharers' are Mega Family Feast at £9.95 and Sharing Nachos at £6.50. The Two for One main course menu is a bit to long to list here so I'll be brief and just list the main sections and a couple of the dishes. Favourite Meals have fish and chips, chicken and bacon pie, cottage pie and steak and ale pie, with several other whole hearty dishes in the price range of £6.95 to £11.65. Then there's the Tastes from around the World, self explanatory, prices are from £7.35 to £8.95.

The Grill part of the menu is the dearest as to be expected and they have a great variety of steak dishes to choose from ranging from £8.45 for a 10oz Gammon Steak to £12.25 for a 16oz Rump Steak. If you fancy a bit on the side try the sautéed mushrooms and onion rings at £1.35 and a whole host of other tempting sauces, dips, chips and salads. Don't forget when you order two main courses you get the cheapest meal free. They do Two for One light meals and a very good selection of children's meals. Desserts are to die for and include Hot Jaffa Pudding £2.65, Chocolate Fudge Cake £2.55 and Profiteroles £2.65 and many more mouth watering puds. You order when you like at the counter at the end of the bar and you can pay with all the main credit cards then you can sit back with your drink and wait about twenty minutes to half a hour for the meals to arrive, and they looked very impressive indeed. They stop serving at 9:30pm. Then it's back to our room to sleep it all off.

We had a very pleasant nights sleep with no disturbances and went to breakfast which was most enjoyable. I almost forgot to mention that you can open a business account with The Premier Travel Inn by calling this number 087060 88 666 or log on to their website which I have put below. Also enjoyEngland work with The Premier Travel Inn and give you plenty of ideas for leisure breaks that range from family fun days to historical attractions and local events if you want more information give their website a visit listed below. Leisure Vouchers are also available for your stay at Premier Travel Inns and can be used at so many places of interest, attractions and eating and drinking outlets all around the country, you could always give their website a visit it is listed below. You will find in your room a Premier Travel Inn comment card that asks about your arrival, the bedroom, the breakfast/restaurant and the overall value for money you got from your stay.

I would recommend Premier Travel Inn to any traveller wanting a pleasant one or two days stay in a very cosy room. It makes a very good base, at a very good price, to return to after spending all day visiting friends and family or even after a planned weekend visit to all the local attractions.

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--- Why Enfield?

Manchester to Enfield for a 9am start is just too horrible to contemplate, so when we had a trampolining competition there we decided to make a weekend of it, and booked into the Premier Travelinn next door to the venue for one night only. There were 13 of us so we rang in advance, booked several rooms and specified names and sleeping arrangements (twins / doubles / one single) prior to arrival. However, on getting there at around 8pm we were told that really we should have faxed this information through with a credit card authorization so they could have checked us in before we arrived. Since we hadnt been asked to do this when we booked, we had to spend almost 30 minutes going through the usual name / nationality / number plate form filling formalities.

This kind of set the scene for the rest of the trip. The service was not especially bad, just a bit slow and at times un-knowledgeable  it took 3 of the reception staff to answer a simple question I had about breakfast.

--- Why here?

The hotel, neatly names the Premier Travel Inn Enfield following the merger of Premier Lodge with Travel Inn, is located on a business park in the middle of Enfield, with a pub next door and a McDonalds and Tesco 2 miles down the road one way, and other branches 2 miles down the road another. In short, there was nothing worth walking to within easy walking distance. Once inside the hotel you can begin to forget the surroundings and focus on what is right there  what is essentially a modern, plain motel with non-descript furnishings and minimal facilities. Beyond the two vending machines and leaflet rack, the hotel has only one extra to offer  meeting rooms for those strange enough to select it as a conference venue. The food on offer is courtesy of the attached Brewers Fayre, and is served all day though the main menu placed in each room is only valid after 6pm.

The hotel is normal and plain in all areas apart from the staircase which is actually a semi-external one with glassed walls offering views of the tiny bit of grass and long main road next door. Very silver and retro in an otherwise conservative, run of the mill place.

--- The rooms

The rooms themselves, or at least our 7, were all identical. Each had a double bed (nice for one person, ok for 2 and cramped for 3), plus a sofa that could convert into 2 single beds if needed: in the twin rooms wed booked the top bed was made up ready, but in the doubles it wasnt. There were also large beech desks with swivelling but small TVs and telephones, a hairdryer, bedside tables with those light switches that let you darken or brighten the entire room without getting out of bed and large doorless wardrobes. The ensuites were spotless, a mix of chrome, white and oak panelling, and had baths and overhead showers which though not power ones, were strong enough. The water was also controlled by one of those snazzy temperature dials so you could set it perfectly without fearing a hot or cold spurt.

The rooms were also well equipped for climate control, with tilting windows, inroom portable fans for placing where you wanted them, overhead vents for cooling or heating and digital temperature control to get the room to your exact specifications. Unusual, but welcome features for this sort of place. They came with quilts on the double beds, sheets on the single sofa beds and spare pillows and towels in the wardrobe, useful if youre larger than a size 4, the size they obviously had in mind when specifying the tiny bath mat cum bath towels.

Freebies were average  miniscule bottles of purple hair and body washes, and coffee, tea and biscuits. No sewing kits or writing paper or even free pens, though there was a feedback questionnaire if you had one of your own to use. The hotel is spread over 3 floors with about 40 rooms on each, and U shaped, so most rooms end up looking over the car-park. Overall, the hotel felt secure  lifts and stairwell doors were keycard operated, the corridors were equipped with numerous fire doors that reduced noise considerably and doors locked internally and had peepholes, though did not come with safety chains.

--- Eating and drinking

We ate at the pub next door, and enjoyed reasonable service and reasonable food for reasonable prices  around £7 for a main course, with starters and puddings from £3. The selection was fairly wide with good vegetarian choices, but it very much gave the impression and ready meals they heated up and then plopped onto a plate for you.

Breakfast was not included in the room rate, but could be bought for £5 or £7 depending on whether you opted for continental or full cooked. I went for the former and feasted for 45 minutes on croissants, toast, farmhouse bread, an assortment of jams and spreads, muffins of various kinds, cereal, fruit juice and yoghurt before I remembered I had to get on a trampoline and bounce in barely an hour. I quickly finished my mouthful, collected a few muffins and a box of cereal for later and took off back along the 30m path to the main hotel, being glad it wasnt raining since this had a roof but no sides so would have provided little shelter in harsher weather conditions. Breakfast is one of my favourite meals as its the one I can eat what everyone else is having, so there was no way I was not going to try it, and I thought it was worth the money although given the numbers in the restaurant it wasnt just the rest of our team who didnt think it was worth getting out of bed for.

Breakfast is served from 6.30am weekdays and from 7am at weekends, and continues until 10 or 11 so even later risers could make it if they wished. Lunch is at lunchtime and evening meals start around 6 and continue until about 10.30pm, which we discovered moments too late when pudding time came, and had to nip out to the late night Tesco for provisions.

--- Overall

As a standard hotel it is lacking in service and amenities. As a glorified motel it gets the job done well. There are no swimming pools or shops or room service offers, but it is certainly a clean, modern, solid hotel for when you just need somewhere to lay your head for the night. At around £53 per room it is cheap for a family of 4 and not too bad for a couple given its proximity to London, but for that price, given its location in England rather than America, I have to dock a star for them not including breakfast. I dont think youd go out of your way to stop here, but if you were passing around bedtime, or knew you were needing an overnight in this area of the country, I would recommend it to you. Nicer than Days Inn and Travel Lodges, Id say it probably does earn the Premier in its title.

Find out more and book online at:

http://www.premiertravelinn.com/

You can also search by road / motorway name as well as postcode or town which makes an interesting change.

This individual branch of a larger chain can be found at:

Innova Park Corner of Solar Way EnfieldEN3 7XY

Tel: 0870 238 3306Fax: 01992 707070

About 10 minutes from junction 25 of the M25 (easy to remember). If you pass one McDonalds and hit another and a Matalan youve gone too far.

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skip this first bit to be able to read the review with capital letters intact. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. It was way back in July, shortly after conducting an overnight investigation at one of the UK's most haunted locations, Derby Gaol, that we booked ourselves into going to what was set to be the biggest paranormal convention of its kind in the UK. And it's name? GhostCon. It was to be held in Nottingham, Bestwood Lodge to be precise. A few weeks passed and our tickets arrived. We forgot all about it for the time being. It was a couple of months later when I received an email from Jason Karl (presenter of Most Haunted, Strange but True, The Why Files, amongst many others). He was inviting us to do a talk at GhostCon. Excellent, we thought, it could only be good publicity for us. As no publicity is bad publicity we agreed. However, with just over a month to go before the big event (over Halloween 2003 by the way) we realised we had a bit of a rush on to find accommodation. Being autumn/winter though we didn't think it would be too much of a problem. How wrong were we?! All the B&B's seemed to be fully booked! There were vacancies at some of Nottingham's top hotels but when you're looking at £70+ per night they were well out of our budget (or certainly out of mine!) We were left with just a couple of alternatives: 1. Sleep in the car - this was unpractical though, when we?re going on investigations and events around the UK we normally have 'the big gold fun bus' as we refer to it. In other words it's a land rover! However, having 5 in the car meant it would be a bit cramped! We were to be staying Friday and Saturday night. As our talk was at 10:30am on the Saturday morning we didn't want to appear like we'd just slept in a car all night! So we struck that off our list. 2. A tent - same problems arise as with the car! That, coupled with the fact that we'd have had to trespass on some farmers land! 3. And last, but by no means least, we're left with the alternative we went for - Travel Inn. I'd never personally stayed in a Travel Inn before. A few members of the Committee had and had not really enjoyed their stays at them before so they were not looking forward to it! However, my parents have stayed at a couple on occasion in the past and recommended them to me. Just the week prior to Halloween my dad was on a course for work and stayed at a Travel Inn in Nottingham itself. It turns out there are three Travel Inn's in Nottingham. A city centre one, city South and one to the West of the centre. So, whilst talking to some Committee members over MSN messenger it was decided we'd have to go with this alternative. If we didn't we'd look like we'd been dragged through a bush backwards for our talk and that would not look good!! Off we scuttled to the Travel Inn website. http://www.travelinn.co.uk. (Which, incidentally, is generally very easy to use when its working, on a couple of occasions we had problems getting it to work but whether this was just a temporary hitch we don't know, it seems to be working ok now!) We checked vacancies for Nottingham city centre, city South and West. By huge relief there were vacancies at the the City South one with the rooms we required. And, as it was a Friday-Sunday we got the reduced rate rooms (£49.95 per room, per night). So we booked ourselves into City South for the two nights. I personally didn't do the booking but from what I can gather it was all very simple. We placed a credit card on file and paid for the rooms on arrival all from the one card. Choice of rooms is fairly standard but please note, they don't do single rooms. Now I don't know if this is nationwide or just Nottingham Travel Inn's but the other Travel Inn's my parents have st ayed in don't appea r to have single rooms either so I'm guessing it's a nationwide trend? However, there seems to be 'Single' options when you go to the 'Online booking and check availability' link on the website. Just out of interest I just tried checking availability of one single room at a few Travel Inn's around the country for one night and on each occasion got a message saying: 'We're unable to fulfil your exact request at ???? Travel Inn. Below is the alternative we can offer. If this doesn't suit you, use the option at the bottom of the page to check availability at other nearby Travel Inns: Room number: 1 Description: Double room' This, again, leads me to believe they don't have single rooms. Surely they can't ALL be booked up!? It seems a bit daft to me though. Firstly, why not have single rooms, and secondly, if they don't do single rooms, why have that option on the online booking system at all? Anyway, back onto my stay. You can therefore choose from double, twin or family rooms. This works out quite economical in that they charge you per room rather than per person. So for a Friday-Sunday stay at £49.95 this works out at £24.98 per person per night based on two sharing either a double or twin room. This meant I paid £49.95 for two nights. Which isn't too bad at all, although it did rock my bank balance a bit at the time! (Being a skint student!!) So, Friday 31st October arrived. Off we went on our 4 hour journey to Nottingham. Nerves were starting to show a little as our talk loomed! On arrival in Nottingham we drove around the ring road a couple of times in the vain attempt to find the Travel Inn. We passed the Travel Inn West one and nearly pulled in until we realised we needed City South! Eventually we found it. Check in is a simple procedure, simply provide your name, address, telephone number, etc. You're asked whether you want breakfast in the morning or not (usually about £5.00 depending on whether you choose continental or fully English style). We knew we'd not have time though so we didn't bother. Then you're asked to sign a form and that's it. You're given your key and left to it. (Incidentally, I've since learnt that this is unusual, you're usually given a key card with which to open your door apparently). Rooms are easy to find as each corridor is labelled 'Rooms 1-10', etc. Our first job was to memorise which rooms our fellow Committee members were in. It turned out there were three floors to this particular Travel Inn and we were all on separate floors! Between us we'd booked two double rooms and one twin. Only one room was a smoking room - one of the double rooms. We desperately needed to have a run-through of the talk but also desperately needed to get to GhostCon itself. We were an hour late as it was due to our run in with the dreaded Nottingham ring road! So we scuttled to our relevant rooms, dumped our bags, grabbed our essentials (camera, torch, EMF meter, and other things essential to any paranormal investigator!) and then all met by the desk in the front lounge. Piled into the 'big gold fun bus' again and set off trying to find Bestwood Lodge. Despite having a map we found it very difficult to find this place!! However, with the help of Gareths (aka bujin) superb pathfinding skills we managed to arrive before midnight! Thank God our talk was on Saturday morning and not Friday night! In theory, if you're to be arriving back at Travel Inn after midnight you're supposed to hand your key in at reception and then collect it again when you get back. We were in such a rush to leave though we completely forgot about this and darted out of the door without a thought about our keys! As GhostCon included 'ghost hunts& #39; we weren't back until about 1am. By which time we'd remembered about this key rule and tried sneaking in past reception hoping no one would notice. There was one person behind the reception desk by they didn't say anything at all. Phew! We desperately needed to have a run-through of our talk though so we all headed up to the smoking double room on the third floor in which to have a practise run-through. We'd gone through the basics by 1:30am so as we had to be up relatively early the morning after it was time for bed. Now we could finally inspect our room properly. (I'd not had chance earlier, merely dumped my bags!) The room was of average size, not too big, not too small. In the room there was the bed (no surprise there then!), usual two bedside tables, lamps, wardrobe, dressing table, wall mirror, a small table with 4 chairs around it, tea/coffee making facilities (with a few biscuits, only a few though so bring extra's if you're likely to get peckish!), spare towels and the all-important TV. There's a clock on the TV too which can be used as an alarm. (NB. remember to leave the TV on standby rather than turning it off completely if you're wanting the clock & alarm facility, something we forgot about and only remembered about when we'd got in bed, neither of us could reach it with our toes and we sure as hell couldn't be bothered getting up again so we used our mobile phones as alarm clocks instead!!) Anyway, that's enough of the bedroom, now onto the bathroom. All Travel Inn rooms are en-suite. The bathroom was quite small but adequate. In it there was a bath (with overhead shower), sink and toilet. Also, a handy heated towel rail type of affair. One thing I did notice in the bathroom though was that the towels themselves were tiny. Really, they were. There?s no way you could class them as 'bath towels'. They were more hand towel sized verging on face cloth/flannel size! Had I wanted to sit with a towel on my head if I'd had time to do such a thing after washing my hair rather than dar ting out of the door in a mad rush I'd not have been successful. The towels were simply not of adequate size to wrap wrong long hair! You got two bars of soap and that's all. No shampoo, shower gel, shower caps or anything else you may associate with more e xpensive, 'proper' hotels. After having a high-speed wash, cleaning my teeth and doing my business it was time for bed. The bed itself was relatively comfortable. I can't really fault the bed itself but we only had one pillow each. Now I'm used to two pillows so this was a bit annoying. I could have asked for another one at reception but at 1:45am when you're worrying about the dreaded talk you've got to present in the morning this wasn?t on the agenda! I didn't sleep too well on Friday night. At the time I blamed it on the noise of traffic outside (that, and my boyfriend is a sheet nicker!!) This is the main flaw I found with Travel Inn to be honest. No, not that my boyfriend insists on having more than 50% of the sheets! But that the noise of the traffic outside could be heard outside. Despite closing the window (which was open on our arrival) you could still clearly hear it. It wasn't a Metro Travel Inn either (i.e. one right next door to a motorway). It was on a fairly busy road but far from being a main road. Yet it was still quite noisy. Incidentally, the others thought the same too so it wasn't just me and the fact that I can never sleep well in a strange bed on the first night! However, having since spoken to my parents, they've never had this problem, they've never been able to hear the traffic really, despite one of their stops being at one by a motorway. Perhaps they've had triple glazed rooms? I'm not sure. One nights 'sleep' over with and it was time to get up again before I knew where I was. We'd all agreed to meet in Reception at 8:45am. We ni pped over to Sainsbury's to grab a bite to eat (or they did, I?m no a breakfast person!) And then hurried back to Bestwood Lodge to present our talk. One talk out of the way we were at GhostCon all day through until gone 1am. At which time it was time to head back to Travel Inn again. And, again, we'd forgotten about our keys! We sneaked in again looking sheepish, but, as with the night before, no one said anything. Being completely knackered this night, slightly more used to the one pillow situation and having no talk to worry about I got a much better nights sleep. The morning after we simply had to hand our keys back in at Reception. No form filling to do or anything. All in all it's a very simple procedure. Unlike many hotels and B&B's you don't have to leave your room until midday so you can have a lie-in if you wish! Like I say, we didn't have time to do any eating really barring dashing and eating on the go! However, all Travel Inns have a restaurant either incorporated into the building, or directly adjacent, which may be one from a selection of chains including Brewsters, TGI Fridays, GrillBar, Out 'n Out, or Brewer's Fayre, Beefeater, amongst others. Ours was a GrillBar but like I say, we didn't get chance to sample the food on offer here. If you're to be staying in a Travel Inn, just don't expect luxuries. You get what you pay for. However, most people use Travel Inn's just for a night or two (like we did), in which case I see no harm in booking into a Travel Inn. I wouldn?t recommend them as a proper holiday accommodation if you?re predicting to spend any length of time in your room. But for the odd trip up and down the country th ey are fine. If you're on your own it's quite expensive for £49.95 for a room (unless some Travel Inn's do have single rooms?) but if there's two or more of you sharing it works out reasonable val ue. All in all it worked out to be good value for us (as no one was staying in a room on their own). If you're staying during the week you can expect to pay higher prices of £52.95 per room per night. So, to conclude, would I stay at a Travel Inn again? Yes. Would I recommend them? Yes. All in all they get the thumbs up from me then!

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I have just recently stayed at the Heathrow Travel Inn (24th April - 25th April 2004) so I've decided to change this review on the Kensington one, to a Travel Inn in General, funny that that is what the subject is about isn't it!? WHO ARE TRAVEL INN? Travel Inn are the largest hotel group in the UK, with just over 310, as of Spring 2004. A couple of years ago, there were over 250, and they are growing all the time, wherever you go, you can expect to see a Travel Inn close at hand, although some places like Mid Wales may not have any at all, like all other hotel chains. They are part of Whitbread plc, so that's one reason why most Travel Inn restaurants and bars are whitbread. They ALL have a restaurant though, I think the non-Whitbread ones are Two for One Restaurants, which are also great! Whitbread also own UK&IRELAND Marriott Hotels. In Travel Inns, you will have en-suite bedrooms, with ultra-comfortable beds and more, which I will talk about later. Every Travel Inn has it's own Restaurant and Bar, most are licenced, with the possible exeption of Road Chef service stations. BOOKING Do you need a place to stay? Then, booking is easy at Travel Inn, every time we have booked, which we have done a lot of times, Travel Inn have been friendly and helpful. Or why not book on the net? To book online, log on to www.travelinn.co.uk and there us an easy book feature, select your hotel, select the type of room, the dates, and the purchaser details with payment details, and you've booked. Or ring up Central Reservations, which is one place to book for all Travel Inns across the UK. Call 0870 242 8000 from 8am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 9am to 8pm on Sundays. You can also call or fax your chosen Travel Inn direct. The international booking number is +44 1582 414341, but remember, Travel Inn currently only have hotels in the UK HOW DO I GET A LISTING OF THEM, HOW DO I RECOGNISE THEM Why not order one of the informat ive guides. On www.travelinn.co.uk there is also plenty of information and a very good search feature. To order a directory, go onto www.travelinn.co.uk and there is a link at the bottom of the homepage. If not, if there's one around your area, pick one up from the reception. Travel Inns logo is very distinctive, with the purple colours and the moon logo. Travel Inn have split their hotels up into 3 sub-brands: -Travel Inn - over 250 Travel Inns riced from just £45.95 per room per night -Metro Travel Inns- in major city centres, NEAR London (not in London though), close to main UK airports and around the M25. Priced from £45.95 per room per night -Capital Travel Inns, in central London, including London Heathrow, and London Docklands Excel. In the directory, Travel Inns, are indicated by a purple band, Metros by an orange band, and Capitals by a red band. They all have the same purple logo with the moon though! RECEPTION Receptions are usually fairly small, although the new one (opened Spring 2003) at London Heathrow, which I have been to, has a large atrium look, and a very large reception with a purple wall behind the desks and information screens. All of them look fresh, clean and contemporary, especially with the new style of Travel Inn in most Travel Inns now. Staff are very friendly and helpful, and you can ask for a hairdryer at reception, or buy toiletries, at reasonable prices, like a long tube of toothpaste at £1.00 SECURITY Security is taken very highly at Travel Inn. To get to the lifts or stairs, you need your key card. This means, only someone with a key can get even into the lifts or up to the stairs. So keep yours with you AT ALL TIMES!!! ROOMS All Travel Inn rooms are almost identical, with only the size and layout changing. Actually, a few years ago, Travel Inn began a program into changing the furniture and styles of the rooms into an even more modern style. Most are now in the style. Previously, they had zig-zag duvets and curtains, with more basic furniture, and gold picture lamps above the mirror, but now, they are more modern. The duvets have red squares with purple diamonds in the middle now, with yellow on the ends and the curtains have purple and red squares. The carpet is purple, and the bathrooms have a storage unit and are peach, with purples in. The furniture is more modern, and the rooms, whilst modern/contemporary, are much more welcoming. I'm sure most, if not all now have these rooms, the rooms are shown in the current guide. But what about the facilities? Well, you have an en-suite bathroom, with bath, shower, toilet and sink. They provide you with toilet roll, and towels, although the bath ones could be a bit bigger please! Also, one of the biggest critisms is the tiny soap in a packet they provide you with, oh well, you can BUY some from reception (shampoo, shower gel ect). The beds are really comfortable, with duvets changed between each customer, and pillows. Curtains are blackout, and there is a large desk area with mirror on the wall, and there is a remote control colour TV. Hairdryers are available at reception. There is a shelf in the room with tea, coffee and hot chocolate and biscuits (although on one day at the Heathrow TI, they forgot the buscuits!). There is also a wardrobe and bedside tables. Everything is modern in design and style, which is good for people like me. The bedrooms and bathrooms are really comfortable. The rooms have always been spotlessly clean, however, in 2000, at the London Gatwick one, the room was a tad bit grubby, but nothing really horrible, after a clean! This was also before the new rooms, although the older rooms are slightly modern and cosy. There are family rooms with a double bed and a sofa usually, but sometimes they have two double beds (like the one at Heathrow) Only Travel Inn Capitals and most Metros, have telephones in room, standard Travel Inns don' ;t. The London Heathrow Travel Inn has 555 bedrooms, but some of them are inside, but as there are glass windows from the top to the bottom on both sides of the hotel, they looked OK, but fortunately, for me, I had a Partial Runway room, and I saw lots of aircraft landing and taking off, it was great when I saw Virginia Plain of Virgin Atlantic, which I flew to New York 2 months previously! However, the sound-proofing was very good in all Travel Inns! 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE On arrival, you are introduced to the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, which means, if there is a complaint to make about the hotel, they will refund your money (so they say) but I don't think this was put in place when we stayed at the Gatwick one, but at the London Kensington one and London Heathrow one, it was. RESTAURANTS AND BARS Every Travel Inn has inside, or attached a restuarant with a bar. Some are located at Roadchef service stations. Restaurants include Brewers Fayre, Brewsters, Beefeater, TGI Fridays, Out & Out, Two for One, and Travel Inns own restaurant brand- SLICE. Some also have Potters restaurants, but they are being replaced with SLICE I think. The Kensington Travel Inn had a SLICE, but we only went into the bar, which was excellent. The Heathrow Travel Inn also had a SLICE, which we ate and drank at. The food was ample, not tiny like some hotels, and was really tasty, great value. All SLICE restaurants are the same in design, really modern, with purples and reds, and are very contemporary in design. At the London Heathrow SLICE Bar, there was also a Costa Coffee area, which was great, not bad prices either, it DIDN'T COSTA lot of money! The Heathrow Travel Inn was really large, with plenty of space it was an atrium, with some bedrooms looking inside in the in the atrium, but, the atrium went right to the top, and was really spacious, so I don't think it would be too bad. Breakfast is great value. A choice of cumbe rland sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatos, baked beans, bloomer bread, toast, criossant, preserves, Marmite, yoghurt, fruit salad, Kellogs Cereal, juices and tea and coffee are available for £6.95. Continental consists of all of the above except for the sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and baked beans at £4.95! We booked a package with Superbreak once with breakfast included, but we would have paid for it, at least you know you can have a great breakfast! In-fact we have paid, and it is good value! Travel Inn also do some packages themselves with free breakfast like London packages and Airport Hotel Parking Packages. Well, I hope the newly refurbished review was good enough and is just as good (or better!) than before. So, I hope that the review gave a good picture about Travel Inn and I reccomend them very highly.

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We were visitng a friend and in desperate need to stay somewhere, all that was available was a Travel Inn at 42.00 (as it was then) it did seem pricey but we had no choice. We were shown into a very spacious and clean room, decorated pleasantly too. The windows are double glazed so we couldnt hear the motorway running outside, and the whole room had a feel of comfort. There is a sofa which converts to a bed if needed, and a large double bed. There is a tv secured on a swivel base, daughter liked this the most!! There are tea and coffee and hot chocolate and biscuits, and you just need ask if you need more, we use approx. 8 sachets of chocolate a visit. The bathrooms have an automatic fan when you enter and a bath and shower, as well as shaving plug and mirror. You also get complimentary soap, shoe polish, and some have mini sewing kits, but this depends on the location, we have found. The tv also has an alarm clock so you dont need to worry if you forget to pack one. Most are loacated next to a motorway or in city centres and all of them offer you a map to find them, in booking online the back is there to print if by telephone they will tell you on the phone most suitable route. They are usually attatched to a brewers fayre or brewsters or beefeater, however the one time we went to Chester and it was next to a Road chef, not suitable for a 2 yr old they transferred us five minutes down the road to warrington with better child facilities, they did warn us it was the noiseiest of all the inns but we have to say we were right at the back onto the motorway and we heard nothing!! The odd lorry faintly but that was it. They still insisted it was very noisy but we were happy with the room and as it was the only family room they gave us a complimentary visit for next time. Now lets say you find the amount expensive well for the price you get assured cleanliness and comfort, the rooms are always the same layout so you never know you are anywhere different, hence the title, as on business trips its been known for hubby to drink too much and lose ther bathroom, but not in a travel inn!!!! IF for any reason you are unhappy as we have been only once and it was a damp smell in the bathroom, we mentioned it at the desk on checkout just to tell them and when we got home a phone call form them and our money was returned as they like you to be 100% happy!! Hows that for service. We can get B + B cheaper but you dont know what you are going in to so we stick to Travel Inn all the time now and find the staff to be the most friendliest and courteaus and in all the Inns. Some even get free newspapers. You do get the option to order breakfast if required and usually 3-4 pounds an adult meal, but we like the fact the room does not have to be vacated until 12.00 mid-day so we make the most of a lie in if daughter lets us.

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Recommended good value hotel chain.

I have only stayed at Travel Inn twice (once at the Euston-London and the other time at County Hall - London. This is soon to become three times (next month actually!) when we will again stay at the Euston - London Travel Inn.

The reasons we booked for Travel Inn in the 1st place was the price (£74.95 per room per night for London Travel Inns)and because they didn't require a deposit. All you need to do to reserve a room is guarantee it with a credit or debit card. This means that the room is yours and they can not give it to anyone. You can still book to room without guaranteeing it, but if you are not at the hotel by 4.00pm they can give your room to another customer.

The rooms are basic, but comfortable. The beds must be good, because even my hubby can sleep on them with his back!! They all have tea and coffee facilities (essential - if you ask me!), TV, some with SKY channels. They even have hairdryers and sometimes trouser presses. The bathrooms are clean and well looked after, with enought room to move around in (I,m sure we've all been to a hotel where the bathroom is about the size of a matchbox!).

The staff are friendly and helpful always ready to supply you with extra pillows and towels etc.

Unfortunately, breakfast isn't included in the price, but for about £7.00 you can have an all-you-can-eat breakfast, great value, but terrible for the waistline!

All in all I would say that Travel Inn is good value for money, and we will continue using them for the forseeable future.

***UPDATE***HiIt's been a couple of years since I wrote this review and we have frequented Travel Inn hotels more and more.

The biggest change to Travel Inn happened last year when they merged with Premier Lodge, so the chain is now known as Premier Travel Inn. The original Premier Lodge hotels are to the same standard of Travel Inn - comfortable beds, good bathrooms, excellent breakfast, etc. We stayed at one in Edinburgh last year and found it to be just as good a bargain as when the company was Travel Inn alone. The only difference I can see with the original Premier Lodge hotels is that in the bathroon you are supplied with dispensers of shampoo, shower gel and handwash, all good quality - the handwash was Dove, which I love!

Premier Travel inn are gradully refurbishing all of their hotels so that they can all offer the same facilities and the same great prices. I would still recommend these hotels to anyone on a budget, especially if they are staying in a city where other accomodation could cost the earth. And obviously, now the two chains have merged this means lots more convenient locations for you to stay.

Give them a try - I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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TRAVEL INNS I have tried everything in my power to make this op dynamic, but failed miserably. I have stayed in a number of Travel Inns across the UK, and have found that there is very little to chose between them, the service has always been first class – food has always been good, if a little boring, and the price reasonable. (Exeter had a slip-up – see under outlet). They are ideal for weekday single business travel, but I don’t find them as competitive at weekends, due to the large range of offers from other more upmarket hotel chains such as Jarvis, Novotel and Marriot. All I can do other than give general details on the chain itself, is to make personal recommendations on the ones I have stayed at, and a little detail on each location. The company provides a brochure listing every outlet in the UK, together with the range of facilities on offer, and what restaurant/eating facilities are alongside. The majority of Travel Inns with the exception of those at Motorway Service Stations (which I avoid like the plague) and London are attached to a Beefeater, TGI Friday, or Brewers Fayre, all part of the Whitbread Chain. Payment can take the form of cash, cheque, or credit card, or I believe you can use gift vouchers in part payment. HOW MUCH? The range of locations is split into: Travel Inns (£40.95 – room only), Travel Inn Metro (around the M25 and near Regional Airports - £49.95 room only) and Travel Inn Capital (London - £69.95 (£74.95 from 01/07/01) room only), If you add Breakfast on for two people it does not constitute such a good deal, as even in the Capital, you can get good deals at weekends with the larger chains. The rooms are fairly standard, double bed, en-suite with shower and bath, some have family rooms for to 2 adults and 2 children under 16. If they do not have one of these rooms, some locations offer a second half price adjoining room at weekends for the kids. Remote control TV, with built in alarm clock (you can’t get early morning calls as there is usually no telephone, tea and coffee making facilities and a desk area. In addition to the printed brochures, there is a web-site (www.travelinn.co.uk) where you can check out your chosen location. The search will select those Travel Inns in close proximity (about 30 miles) to where you want to go, and also identify any local attractions to that location. You can book on-line for a selection of the Travel Inns, contact Central Reservations on 0870 242 8000 or ring the selected outlet directly. Your reservation will require confirmation either by fax, or a credit card number. Traditional English Breakfast is £6.00 per head (£6.50 in Capital Travel Inns) WHERE HAVE I STAYED? Nuneaton - Tel: 024 76343584 Next to the Griff House Beefeater. Out in the middle of nowhere, you will need to drive or get a taxi to either Nuneaton (3 miles) or Coventry (11 miles) for a bit more social life. Milton Keynes - 01908 663388 Next to the Barn Beefeater – just outside the town-centre – didn’t venture out in this one, but it is more of a motel than hotel. Exeter – 01392 875441 Next to The Countess Wear Beefeater – we arrived here quite late at night to find someone had cocked up our booking, there was two of us sharing a room, and they had booked us a double instead of a twin, luckily the other guest hadn’t turned up, but they confirmed that they would have allocated us a room in another hotel at their expense, if they hadn’t been able to accommodate us. Good service for the price.. Solihull (Hockley Heath) – 01564 782144 Next to The Barn Beefeater – in a residential area about 2 miles from Junction 4 of the M42. Service here deserves a Gold star, and the food was excellent, about £14.00 for a two course meal with drinks. Gloucester (Longf ord) - 01452 523519 Next to the Longford Beeteater Stumbled across this one after a very long day travelling. Enjoyed a bar meal for two with drinks £15, breakfast was probably the best ever at one of these outlets Sunderland – 0191 548 9384 This was next to a Beefeater that I believe has now changed to a Brewers Fayre. Was in the middle of an industrial zone, thus a taxi was required for socialising, but we did get a warm welcome off the locals as we up there to watch out team get slaughtered by Newcastle and there is big rivalry between Sunderland and Newcastle. If you want a Travel Inn around Buckinghamshire/Bedfordshire, be prepared to book at least 4 weeks in advance, otherwise you will be unlikely to get in, as I found out recently on a number of visits to High Wycombe. SUMMARY I have no complaints about the Travel Inns I have stayed in, but although part of a chain, I guess service can vary from one to another, although I have not found any cause for complaint yet, despite having been to various locations across the UK. As already mentioned, if travelling at the weekends, check out some of the other hotel chains before booking, as there are definitely better deals and better facilities around providing it is not a Bank Holiday weekend.